Overload
by Stranded With Plums
Summary: Lily was just trying to decide whether to get another cup of coffee, but emotions get the best of her. ONESHOT


Overload

I do not own the characters of Cold Case. I just write about them.

I was listening to the Counting Crows "Round Here" and found myself writing this little fic.

Lily had been to the coffee pot at least four times since she had walked in the door at 8:30 a.m. and it was only now just 10 a.m. Her contacts stuck to her eyes like suction cups

and in response they had turned on the faucets to spread some relief for the time being. With a Kleenex and a hot Styrofoam cup in hand, she slowly made her way back down

into the dungeons where lost souls yet to be comforted awaited her return.

"Damn", she whispered as liquid seeped over the edge of the cup and onto the files that were currently spilled across her desk.

If only she could be more careful, more aware, just more...anything. She steadily unlocked a bottom drawer and pulled out a roll of paper towels, while moving the cause of her

dismay out of accident's reach. Wiping the corrosive agent from the paper laying within its file, she stared with dissatisfaction at the coffee-colored stain that remained.

"Stains...I hate stains", she mumbled and took to getting herself refocused on the tasks still waiting to be resolved.

Plopping gracefully into her chair with her feet propped up on the bottom bar between the two front legs, she began to read away at the words splayed across the pages. Hours

seemed to go by, but in reality only a mere half-hour came and went and with a headache creeping up her neck she sat back uncomfortably for a few minutes. Sighing heavily

with her hands covering her line of vision and fingers massaging her aching forehead, she let her feet fall from the bar and onto the floor rather loudly.

Bright, intelligent, and fearless detective Lily Rush was getting nowhere...and fast. Standing up stiffly, she walked over to the door and stood lazily against its frame, while

contemplating fetching another cup of coffee for herself. Eventually the caffeine had to work its miracle cure, but she had to inhale as much of it as possible in order for that to

happen. The hard part was the getting up, climbing the stairs, and the trip back after filling her cup to the brim.

"I'm just so tired. I'm...just...so...tired", she stated to no one in particular and even forming the words took such great effort that when her declaration was done she felt even

more tired than before.

Truth be told, the loneliness was killing her, but slowly. She had her work, which could be considered a friend of some sort, but not the type that threw its arms around you and

soothed any pains away that might come crawling into life unexpectedly. The nights were still cold and filled with silence and only the presence of another human being could take

those negatives away, but she didn't have the strength nor the want that was involved in building that kind of a relationship.

"You can only depend on yourself Lily. No one else will be there to pick you up when you fall, so just get over it already", she chided herself rather harshly.

It was this moment that she had been dreading for some time now. The moment where she wouldn't be able to hold up the barriers and keep the pain on the inside...you know

where it belongs. It was at this very moment that Lily Rush let a few lone tears travel down from her blue eyes and land onto her cheeks. The emotions were hitting her all at

once and the force of the impact was proving to be too much for her to handle. Her brain was spinning into madness and her thoughts raced by like horses in the Kentucky

Derby on their way to the finish line...only in this case there was no finish line. She stood there helpless as her body racked with sobs and her heart cracked into a million shards

of glass. Her gut turned itself inside out and back again, while a wave of nausea crashed onto the shores of her stomach causing a lump to appear in her throat.

Ten minutes later, she was planted on the floor and slumped against the door frame as she stared off into space. And to think that all she really wanted was another cup of coffee.


End file.
